A lot of things have been said about China’s watchmaking industry in the past decade and some, generally not in a positive light. For many, China is known as the country that makes replicas and cheap watches, and that is home to 90% of micro and independent brands’ manufacturing power.  And a lot has been further said about the allegedly true origin of many Swiss components—allegedly indeed but most likely with probable cause. All of this indicates to me that Chinese manufacturers are doing something great, otherwise nobody would be talking about them because, more often than not, criticism is the hidden face of jealousy. Whether looking at the millions of watches that come out of Chinese manufactures each year, or the energy with which Western brands and the journalistic community are bashing the former, the truth is that China is where watchmaking is at and anyone who denies is simply lying to him/herself. A lot of outstanding things are coming out of China and we can’t simply turn a blind eye to them. 

So in the midst of all of this, and despite all of the noise, little is actually known about contemporary Chinese watchmaking. China has a long history of clock and watch manufacturing and of inventing and engineering mechanical movements that go back as early as the eight century A.D. I feel that a lot of watch folks are under the impression that suddenly, China went from doing nil to mass-producing cheap copies of Western horological creations, albeit, well, that it ain’t just that. To make a very long story short, China is choke-full of engineers, designers, and inventors who are as capable as any of their Swiss or French or English or German counterparts of designing and making outstanding watches and components, and that China has a multi-millenia tradition of exquisite crafts—what we refer to as the French métiers d’arts—which touched and still touch upon all areas of human creativity. So today, and through the Atelier Wen Perception Xiá, we’re going to talk about traditional Chinese arts, architecture, and watchmaking. 

Specifications 

As we will later see, the Perception constitutes a miniature representation of numerous traditional Chinese arts, crafts, and architectural features, reflected in the design of the dial, case, and bracelet. But before we get into all of that, let us first be watch nerds and dissect the specifications this beauty is endowed with. The first key element of which is the 904L stainless steel case which is known to be softer than 316L stainless steel but much more resistant to corrosion on account of the molybdenum we find within. (Google it to know more about the latter! I failed chemistry.) 904 can also be finished with superb mirror-polished surfaces and softer satin-like surfaces which we do find here which beautifully complement the easy-to-wear modern dimensions of 40mm in diameter, 47mm lug-to-lug, and a meager 9.4mm in thickness. Despite the fact that the Perception has an integrated bracelet design, it is not so and comes with a 22mm lug width. 

The bracelet is also made of 904L stainless steel which comes with a similar finish as the case, quick-release spring bars, thin screwed links, a taper from 22mm at the lugs to 18mm at the clasp, and two never-seen before innovations: a telescopically extensible blade built-in the deployant mechanism of the clasp which extends the length of the latter when sliding the watch onto the wrist and which retracts when closing the bracelet. This system is not only highly clever and deceptively simple, but intuitive and perfectly integrated within the clasp. The other piece of cool technology is the button-actuated on-the-fly micro-adjustment mechanism made of 32 parts (the brand mentioned it so I do too because it matters) which comes with two major benefits: the clasp can remain super short and one doesn’t have to remove the bracelet from the wrist to adjust it. Just by looking at the case and bracelet you already know you’re in for a treat. 

But before with continue with the specs, let’s talk about price because it’s going to over-fucking-whelm you. (Loosely quoting from Heat of course.) The Perception Xiá retails for $3,320 USD which is more than already justified (to me) on account of the case material and finish as well as the bracelet and clasp’s proprietary innovations. But there’s more. The fabulous case has a screw-down crown and case-back for 100 meters of water resistance, the top crystal is a piece of double-domed sapphire with 10 layers of inner anti-reflective coating, the case-back is partially made of a shaped piece of sapphire and of a hammered main texture, the hands and geometrical minute track are lumed with X1 SuperLuminova which glows ice blue, and more importantly, the caliber within is a customised Chinese made Dandong SL1588 caliber which beats at 4Hz, has 41 hours of power reserve, and is regulated to run at +/-10 seconds per day. Shoot, right? 

Design 

If you have already heard of Atelier Wen it is certainly due to the hand-turned guilloché dials made by China’s first guilloché master, Cheng Yu Cai on a rose engine of his own engineering. Guilloché is a process by which matter is carved out from a block of metal in a repetitive sequence by way of a specialized hand-actuated tool, not only a pattern. Today many watches born from micro and independent brands have guilloché patterns printed or pressed onto the dials, not traditionally handmade. The particularity of Master Cheng Yu Cai’s guilloché work is the écailles de poisson (fish scales in French) pattern which is composed of interwoven curves and straight lines which become decreasingly smaller and tighter towards the pinion. Because of the tool used to create the pattern and the changes in sizes and dimensions, the dial is endowed with an intense sunburst effect which makes the rose-copper color of the guillochéd plate even more so striking under any lighting condition. 

But the singularity and intricacy of the guilloché work only reflects a fraction of the dial’s global and codified aesthetic. The latter was conceptualized to evoke the ancient Chinese building assembly technique called sǔn mǎo by which architectural elements are held in place via friction-based assembly which required no glue or nails. Practically this technique is represented onto the dial of the Perception through the polished applied markers which are both lodged into the guillochéd dial as well as crossed by the raised chapter ring, akin to nails holding these two elements firmly in place. Onto the chapter ring is printed a huí wén pattern (a traditional decorative pattern found on many Chinese buildings) entirely made of X1 SuperLuminova, the whole being complemented by a set of polished and rhodium-plated leaf hands in the center of which were deposited several layers of X1 lume. Above the pinion and delineated from the dial by miniature moats, we find the brand logo and name.  

The case of the Perception Xiá is yet another affair. Not only because it is thin (9.4mm with a sandwich sapphire crystal and 100 meters of water resistance is impressive in its own right,) but for it is wide, flat, and angular, its flanks designed to mimic the flared-out profiles of pagodas. The case has four concave cuts at the corners, the shape of which is intensified by thin polished chamfers which run throughout the entirety of the case on each side, flat lower sections, and an angled and fully polished fixed bezel. Because the case is so wide at the three and nine, the bezel sits a few millimeters in from the edges of the mid-case which further makes it stand out, and accentuates the global and intense angular profile of the case. Lastly, the case-back is quite superb for being made of a shaped piece of sapphire and the relief-shaped and hammered representation of Shí shīzi, the stone guardian lion. 

The Heart of the Matter

The Atelier Wen Perception is a model I’ve heard too much about and which has been overly praised by many entities of the journalistic arm of the watch community. I was reluctant to check it out because I thought there was probably nothing interesting for me to add to the conversation. And I’m not saying that today I did say anything new or interesting about it, but now I understand why the Perception has created so much buzz and why it’s important to talk about it. On the one hand, it breaks down the decades-long stereotypes many of us have had about the Chinese watch manufacturing industry. It shows that, in China, there are skilled craftsmen (and women) who can do something unique and well, just like for the past two hundred years, there have been skilled craftsmen (and women) in Switzerland who have been doing things unique and well. Talent, expertise, and heritage are not confined within the borders of any one country in particular. 

On the other hand, the Atelier Wen Perception is a masterful horological creation I assume is entirely manufactured in China. When adding up the handmade guilloché dial and its intricate construction, the rhodium plated hands, the regulated and customized caliber, the great lume, the 904L steel case and bracelet, the proprietary button-actuated on-the-fly micro-adjustment mechanism and the telescopic extensible blade mechanism of the scissor clasp, $3,320 USD is little money to ask for this masterpiece. The heart of the matter here therefore is the fact the Perception couldn’t have been made anywhere else, and that we wouldn’t be able to buy one for only $3,320 USD. The same country which allegedly floods the global market with cheap and replica watches can also make the Atelier Wen Perception, which goes to show that most of us indeed know little about the actual Chinese watch manufacturing culture and tradition. Though for it to be, Atelier Wen necessitated a Western touch. 

Just sayin’. 

Conclusion 

Through the Perception Xiá—and subsequently through its two other variants, the blue Piāo and black Yǐng—we were able to discover a new universe, that of traditional Chinese crafts, architecture, and manufacturing techniques, which I would assume most of us knew nothing about. (Speak for yourself, Vincent?) So the study of this model made it possible, at least for me, to peak through the backdoor of another world of watchmaking, that of skilled craftsmen and women, of singularity of design and of engineering, deeply anchored within traditional Chinese know-hows and artistic sensibilities, and the three dimensional mechanical timekeeping result of which is nothing short of extraordinary. I encourage you to peruse through Atelier Wen’s wesbite to learn more about the brand and what it does because there is a lot of information on it. 

Thanks for reading.